Opinion: Obama Aims for Your Gun

Author and political commentator Monica Crowley on President Obama's gun control push and the public's dissatisfaction with dysfunctional government. Photo: Pool

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... short sleeved network along with members of my cabinet ... come up with some concrete steps we can take right now ... to keep our children say ... to help prevent Mehsud ... to reduce the broader epidemic of gun violence in this country ... and we can't put this off any longer ... welcome to Opinion Journal Live by Mary Kissel ... prison Obama announce sweeping new gun control measures in these last few hours ... including a call to ban certain semiautomatic weapons ... and high capacity ammunition magazines ... Fox News contributor and author Monica Crowley is here ... to talk about the politics at play in Monaco welcome there and to suppress the really want the deal here or is this just another issue with which to that or Republican ... it's interesting because he An ouster his team announced twenty three executive actions there on nonexecutive orders are some new wants in there it's not all gonna be unilateral action by the president ... but it but it's very interesting that he propose something that must go through Congress ... well sort of loading API's executive actions I think he knows that there's not a big appetite in Congress for this kind of gun control particularly the assault weapons ban ... Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed that White House is very careful to say they're not specifically endorsing her Dell ... but that they will work with her ... other members of Congress who supported China's strength in it and try to get it through ... I don't think that this White House actually expects it to get through Congress ... I remember Mary this is not a right left it's you it's not a Republican or ... Democrat issue ... this is more of a regional issue you see you've got Northeast ... liberals you really want stricter gun controls Bishop a lot of Democrats in red states ... like West Virginia Pennsylvania and so one who really oppose it ... so it's been a very difficult and that's why I think he learned so much of this up would be tuck in fact it seems to be the great untold story here which is this within the Democratic Party ... over gun control center Harry Reid even says he's not sure you get ... to that chamber ... was around the executive order here I've twenty three executive orders ... I thought it did this present oppose the Imperial presidency what what what's going on yes isn't it amazing the transformation that is made when President Bush was in office he was constantly complaining about an Imperial president ... Bush going too far Bush ravaging the Constitution he voted against raising the debt ceiling when it was President Bush doing the asking ... now perceives asking for unilateral action that to be able to do that sell ... it in this could be different Barack Obama for them when the sun went into the U S senator who ... disagree with their local outlets about the optics ... of this press conference that which is getting a lot of attention nationally ... and probably use children ... and to surround him at his press conference presumably invoking the standing of the massacre ... is the appropriate ... what you know this president has used children of before he sees his own children when he's been campaigning he's been out there in interviews with Kamin and assuaged Purcell and so on his own sees children and other ... contacts for sample when he was signing Obamacare the health care bill he had an adorable little boy there with them ... and ... politicians sometimes do this because very tough to argue against children write their adorable they look at when and why it is then deposit the incident and this is one way of putting his opponents on gun control in this case ... on the defensive there you can argue against these beautiful children ... I don't think it is particularly appropriate for the president of three to soften these children today on why he didn't and I think it's particularly appropriate ... what's interesting is that the NRA is that with a brand new adds ... up over the last ten or so when you talk about the president's two daughters who attended private school they've got a armed security obviously that God secret service protection and their school therefore is not a gun free zone ... said they're calling the press in out of the hypocrite that his children ... attend an ARM school for their protection but now he's asking you to send your children to an anonymous caller ... who what where they'll probably be in more danger when speaking of the Washington D C we had a fancy happened Wall Street Journal this morning from a former federal prosecutor ... who talks about why the courts cooking the Supreme Court ... half have found against gun control because it has perverse ... outcomes it helps the criminals ... and it punishes the law abiding citizens ... what's your take on the constitutional issues that are played in this to be down there and there are few aam ... namely the first amendment obviously when we talk about violence in Hollywood movies where violent video games that's an expression of free speech got to play ... the obviously the second amendment mature bright as law abiding citizen to have to keep and bear arms is the founding father said ... a lot of different constitutionally she is here which is why the Supreme Court has repeatedly found ... that you as a citizen you do have that individual rights to keep and bear arms is not just the militia ... that the second amendment actually refers to ... and the case that was most recently several years ago coming out of Spain cord ... it was an elderly black man living in one of the most ... Gang range Road Reynolds neighborhoods in Chicago Barack Obama saw neighborhood ... and he wanted the ability to protect himself and his small little modest apartment for the gun violence but haven't been kind of his sound ... the Supreme Court agreed with him and I've held that ... the individual's right to bear this initiative doesn't get a lot of precedent in the national media ... um what about the presence of the current overall Coursera which ended here ... about thirty seconds left how should we interpret ... today's press conference in that one will remember for years to get married to use the phrase the fundamental transformation of the nation that's what he was interested and ... another the last four years we have understandably been very consumed with what he meant by that on the economic side salad crushing debt out of control unprecedented spending socialized medicine all of the things that we've been talking bout you guys talk about it the journal everyday ... but there's another part of the fundamental transformation and gun control is certainly part of it ... we saw with the war on religious freedom the war in the Catholic Church and other religious institutions ... we so with the war on women and now we're seeing you with that this move on gun control said there's another whole element to the fundamental transformation of a nation ... that he's now I think that the really nekkid stand in the second term and something we need to watch for Duke a former have to leave it that Fox News contributor and author Monica Crowley ... thank you so much for being here with us thank you ...